310 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



idea. Being made dovetailed, It would be 

 strong enough; but its strongest point would be 

 its cheapness, for I believe the time has gone by 

 when bee-keepers can afford expensive hives. 

 But if the price were the same. I should still 

 prefer them made of thin lumber, say K or ^ 

 inch. Flat covers of ^a and }■.;: inch lumber are 

 much the best, as they are lighter, and keep 

 their place better, as I have proved in actual 

 use for several years; and this brings me to my 

 subject of 



HOME-MADE HIVES. 



I make hive bodies, bottoms, and covers, in- 

 stead of buying, preferring to put money into 

 foundation, as good straight worker combs and 

 sections tilled /u/7 of foundation, I believe, pay 

 every time. I also buy my brood-frames, sec- 

 tions, and supers. The materials are boot and 

 shoe boxes, generally Vi" and K inch in thick- 

 ness. The best boot- boxes are 3}.; feet long, and 

 will cut two lengths of hive stuff, while shoe- 

 boxes are short and will cut but one length, 

 leaving short pieces that will work in crosswise 

 in making bottoms. The boxes can be bought 

 here for 10 and 5 cents apiece for long and short 

 ones. The short boxes, if in good condition, will 

 each make a one-story hive with bottom and 

 cover, and the long ones a two-story hive for ex- 

 tracting. The ends of the boxes being thicker, 

 thev are used for ends of hives, rabbeting them 

 for the hanging frame. A rabbet-plane can be 

 bought for 50 or (iO cents; and some little strips 

 can be nailed on so it will cut just the right 

 width, and stop cutting at the right depth. Of 

 course, the stuff 



NEEDS NO PLANING 



unless you want to plane off the stencil-marks. 

 For my part I rather like to see them; for the 

 slight trace of the letters showing through the 

 paint reminds me of money saved; and I take 

 pride in saying to visitors, " See that hive? I 

 made it myself, and it cost me only Jive cents 

 out, except the paint." When I first made 

 them, six or seven years ago, I made them like 



A HOME-MADE BEE -HIVE, MADE OF SHOE- 

 BOXES. 



the Heddon-Langstroth, witii tight bottom; but 

 I now make them with Dr. Miller's reversible 

 bottom, so as to have upper and lower stories 

 interchangeable. 



THE COVERS. 



These are made of the sides of boxes which 

 are matched. They are made long enough so 

 they can be reversed, and the bees propolize the 

 joints so they will shed rain. They make a 

 light handy hive for carrying in and out if win- 

 tered in the cellar, but I have wintered in them 

 on summer stands with excellent results since 

 1884, by the following mode of packing for win- 

 ter: The bees are supplied with six frames con- 

 taining their stores, with a dummy or division- 



board on each side. Corncobs are laid crosswise 

 over the frames, instead of the Hill device; but 

 latterly I use the large-sized wooden butter- 

 dishes turned bottom up over the cluster, and I 

 like them much better. A piece of burlap is 

 spread over, and then a thing I will call 



THE HILL TRAY 



is put on (see cut). I learned the use of this 

 from Mr. Hill, of Mount Healthv. Ohio, when 

 visiting at his h(Mne in the fall of 1884. It is 

 simply a light rim five or six inches high, with 



SHOE-BOX HIVE, WITII BUTTER-TRAV AND TRAV 

 WITH BLTRLAP BOTTOM FOR WINTERING. 



burlap tack(Hl on for a bottom. He ex])lained 

 that it would fit up in the corners better than a 

 cushion. He used them on old-style Langstroth 

 hives. I find them cheapei-, too, as tliey take 

 less burlap. 



After covering the bees with this tray about 

 two thirds full of chaff, a five-cent shoe-box is 

 turned over the whole. It comes down over the 

 hive usually two-thirds or three-fourths the way 

 down, and so protects the hive a good deal. 

 They ai'e always longer than the hive, so they 

 are put up close behind, and left sticking over 

 in front. This gives a chance for ventilation 

 through the hole covered with screen in the 

 front end of the tray. It will be seen that this 

 makes but little additional expense in prepar- 

 ing the bees for winter, and but little packing 

 material is used. One thing I will mention that 

 I consider essential to success in wintering out- 

 doors in this latitude, and that is— ofcZ combs. 



Oberlin. O., Feb. 21. Chalon Fowls. 



[Hives made of thin stuff' had a run some 30 

 or 25 years ago. They wei'e discarded because 

 they were so liable to injury, and most of us 

 thought they were not as efficient protection 

 against the frost as hives made of inch lumber. 

 Some 12 or 15 years ago I revived the idea again 

 with what I called the " hoop " hive. These had 

 covers ^^ inch thick. But every little while_ 

 somebody would sit down on these thin covers," 

 and smasii them in. They also troul)led me by 

 getting split and coming to ])ieces. I decided 

 that they were not as good weather protection, 

 either in winter or summer. I have made some 

 very pretty bee-hives from boxes bought at dry- 

 goods stores; but unless one has much spare 

 time to pull them to i)ieces and get the nails 

 out, and considerable skill and ingenuity in 

 making things work together, I decided it did 

 not pay. Now. in contrast with the above, I 

 have several times thought that thin hives, sit- 

 ting right in the sun, work better, especially in- 

 the spring of the year, than thick ones. Such 

 hives will certainly answer very well, for many 

 of us have tried them when we could not get 

 any better.] 



